Both Artemi Panarin and Erik Karlsson are available. We know Karlsson is, or has been, a Dallas Stars target. It doesn't take much imagination to think the Stars would be interested in Panarin. Who makes a bigger impact on the 2018-19 Stars roster?

We know Karlsson is the definition of elite. Trying to rephrase it any other way at this point is an exercise in futility. We get it. The question of whether or not the Stars need to acquire Karlsson still lingers. It hasn't been answered other than "sure, why not?" Every team can use Karlsson, but is adding Karlsson the most pressing need the Stars have?

Maybe.

An easy argument can be made for adding a top-six forward, but let's look at the kind of impact adding Karlsson to the Stars defense would have on the club overall. We'll make it pretty simple so this doesn't turn into 1,700 words and use goals above replacement and the Sean Tierney Tableau from the Blake Comeau story.

So, what I've done here is add Karlsson to the Stars defense. Dan Hamhuis and Greg Pateryn are on the list to drive a point home. Roman Polak is here.

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Sean Tierney

GAR data for the Dallas Stars defense.

As you would expect, Karlsson shoots right to the top, even above John Klingberg. He would be a clear No. 1 defenseman on the Stars, given that he's the top defenseman in the league. Klingberg is third in the NHL in GAR. Those two together are about as elite as you can get.

Things get murky when you go further down. Hamhuis and Pateryn are inside that black box. Pateryn is now a member of the Minnesota Wild. Hamhuis is still a free agent, but as of now, both players are gone. Neither player is great, yet both bring value the Stars need to replace.

In the red box are Marc Methot and Roman Polak, who both had negative GAR values in 2018. Polak, theoretically, will be the seventh defenseman. The signing didn't make much sense at the time despite the low salary, and it isn't crippling on its own. A larger problem is Methot and Polak together. One of them is going to have to be in the lineup nightly, despite a lack of production.

This chart doesn't have Julius Honka or Miro Heiskanen on it. Can they do enough to replace Pateryn and Hamhuis? You would like to think so. Even if that is all they do, the Stars defense doesn't actually get any better during the 2018-19 season.

Now, if you swap out Honka for the best defenseman in the league? That makes the group take a giant step forward immediately and into the projectable future.

Adding Karlsson also keeps the Stars from adding up front, so it's only fair to see how some potential forward acquisitions would help. This GAR chart for the Stars forwards has Panarin, Jeff Skinner and Max Pacioretty added to it.

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Sean Tierney

GAR data for Stars forwards and potential acquisitions.

Gemel Smith and Valeri Nichushkin are absent, but you can clearly see that any of those three become easy top-six forwards for the Stars. Pacioretty and Skinner make the Stars better. Panarin puts the Stars' forward group on another level.

I'm dubious about some of the Stars' numbers because I think there is a real "Ken Hitchcock effect," but it's clear Panarin would be the Stars' top forward. Forwards tend to make more of an impact on a game than defensemen. You can see that with Panarin's 20 GAR, which is third in the league among forwards, compared to the 14 GAR of Karlsson that leads defensemen.

With all of that being said, who makes a bigger impact? Karlsson gives the Stars the ability to have one of the top three defensemen in the league on the ice at all times, minimizing the impact of the other four defenders. Panarin, paired with a team-wide rebound without a "defense-only" mindset, helps the Stars' lack of depth up front. As long as either player is available, it's a coin flip as to who is going to help the Stars more.